Whenever any grandmaster of chess is asked the question “Which chess book helped you the most” or “To what book do you most attribute your success”, the answer is almost always the same. What is it that makes this book so much better than the others? Is it the deep analysis, the explanation of the ideas or is it the personality of the author himself in his exuberant explanations of how the struggle creates art.

Whenever any grandmaster of chess is asked the question “Which chess book helped you the most” or “To what book do you most attribute your success”, the answer is almost always the same. All or almost all grandmasters say there is one book that stands above all others in leading to success over the board. The name of that book is: International Grandmasters Chess Tournament Zurich 1953 by David Bronstein, which is reprinted here under the more commonly used title of World Chess Championship Candidates Tournament Zurich 1953.

David Bronstein was a chess grandmaster and one of the strongest players in the world. In this sharp and provocative essay, the authors explain their concern regarding the increasingly sport oriented nature of chess, in which the result is all-important, to the detriment of chess as an art form and as an element of culture.